Under the hood of Windows 8, or why desktop users should upgrade from Windows 7

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On Friday, October 26, Microsoft will unleash Windows 8 — the result of more than three years of work by one of the world’s largest cross-disciplinary software and hardware engineering teams, and undoubtedly the largest, most daring, and most vital project the Redmond, Washington company has ever attempted.

At this point, if you’re a desktop or laptop user, you are probably laughing in my face. “Microsoft spent three years killing the Start menu and introducing a new tablet interface,” you say. “Windows 8 is Windows 7 with a cross-paradigm UI/UX trainwreck,” you bellow — and to an extent, you are correct. Windows 8 is undoubtedly a tablet-oriented operating system. Microsoft has tried to pass it off as a “touch-first OS,” but that’s just euphemistic swill from the PR department.

Given the way Microsoft seems to be spending most of its $1.5 billion Windows 8 marketing budget on the Surface tablet and the Metro Start screen, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Desktop (Explorer) side of things has simply been swept under the rug. You would be even be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft has abandoned the existing two billion users of the Windows Desktop, opting instead to recklessly chase the shiny, happy, and unproven tablet market.

Thankfully, though, Windows 7 isn’t the end of the Desktop line. Windows 8 does actually include a ton of tweaks and upgrades that Desktop users will very much enjoy. I’ve been using Windows 8 for a year now, and I can definitely say that the Desktop experience is faster, and generally better than Windows 7. Enough talking, though; let’s actually dive on in and take a closer look at the Windows 8 underbelly.

Core upgrades

By designing Windows 8 for tablets, Microsoft was forced to put a lot of effort into streamlining the entire OS for battery-powered, wimpy (Atom and ARM) mobile devices. As a result, Windows 8 boots up faster, and the OS itself consumes less RAM and CPU cycles than Windows 7. For mobile users this means more battery life and snappier performance — but for Desktop users, this means Windows 8 is simply faster than Windows 7.

Let’s break it down.

Startup

The very first thing you’ll notice with Windows 8 is that it boots a lot faster than Windows 7 (or Vista or XP, if you’re still part of the significant minority hanging onto either). This is partly because of the shift to UEFI (from BIOS), but primarily because of a clever tweak to the boot process. If you’re still using a mechanical hard drive, your boot time will probably go from around 30 seconds to 15-20 seconds. If you’re using an SSD, boot generally takes less than 10 seconds.

Basically, when you shut down a Windows 7 (or any other kind of PC), the slate is wiped clean. When you shut down Windows 8, the low-level system state (kernel/session 0) is saved to your hard drive, just like hibernation. Then, when you boot, only drivers need to be reinitialized — which is a lot faster than loading up the entire operating system. It’s kind of a cheat, but it works very well.

Incidentally, if you want to perform a full “cold” boot (without the kernel being hibernated), simply select Restart from the shutdown menu or run shutdown /s /full /t 0.

Security

While exact details of the Windows 8 kernel are fairly hard to come by, we do know that a lot of changes were made to ruggedize Windows 8 against malware and rootkits. For the most part, these protections take the form of memory allocation safeguards (see below).

Many hackers have already gone on the record to say that Windows 8 is (and will be) very hard to break into.

Due to the inclusion of UEFI (which is basically like a very light-weight operating system that then loads Windows), there is also a boot-level malware scanner that will prevent your computer from booting if a USB thumb drive is infected. There’s also Secure Boot, which stops the system from loading if any core system files have been altered.

Power management

Improved power management in Windows 8 takes a three-pronged approach: The introduction of the Metro app model; idle hygiene; and runtime device power management.

In Windows 8, Metro apps run on top of a new application architecture called WinRT, which is a low-level set of APIs that run just above the Windows kernel. WinRT is the Metro equivalent of Win32, which is the API that Desktop apps use. WinRT, because it is ultimately targeted towards tablet (and eventually smartphone) apps, is designed from the outset to be power efficient. In general, Metro apps are very good at only running when they need to run — otherwise, they are very quickly shifted to a suspended state, to minimize their CPU use, and thus power use. To cater for apps that need to periodically update for freshness, such as news or email apps, WinRT also includes functions for doing this efficiently (called Background Tasks).

Idle hygiene and runtime device power management will both result in slightly better battery life (and performance) for Windows 8 laptop and desktop users, though. Idle hygiene is basically what it sounds like: It’s the trick of getting the CPU back to an idle, low-power state as soon as possible. In recent years, most chip makers (x86 and ARM) have made big strides towards CPUs that shut down unused parts of the chip. In simple terms, an Intel chip might have four cores — but a lot of power can be saved if three of those are fully turned off when they’re not needed. In Windows 8, improved idle hygiene should result in less power usage, and also more CPU time for apps that need it.

Runtime device power management is basically the same thing as idle hygiene, but for other hardware — such as hard drives, wireless radios, and so on. Without active power management, these devices can consume huge amounts of power.

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metro, as used in windows phone, is ridiculously good looking. I can only hope win8 is a migration in that direction.

the current tile screen does look doofy though, with all those lame colours.

Garol Grube

downgrade*

John R.

I know several people who have seen the new look and feel of Windows 8 and have been put off by it. They are not willing to spend the time to learn the new user interface. I have a feeling many more will also be reluctant to purchase a new computer, when they see that the Windows 8 operating system is installed on the PC.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian Anthony

Yep, true. It could be an issue if all Windows 8 machines in Best Buy are defaulted to the Metro interface. A lot of people might look at it and think ‘wtf?’

Tessa

I think the key to pitching it will be showing off systems with touchscreens. If you can hook consumers on how cool laptops (and desktop monitors) with multitouch are, there’s a good chance they’ll happily upgrade — and it could even spark a significant consumer PC upgrade cycle.

Of course, whether they can make that pitch successfully very much remains to be seen.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EKNZKJ5LBTYYEUH4NCSPTGFGGE Eric

I already have touchscreens to use… they still suck where pinpoint accuracy is needed… the mouse is hard to beat with speed sensitive acceleration and visual feedback of data (like an hourglass or X)

With a dozen employees who all abhor the touchscreen PC’s at the station here, it’s obvious to me a touchscreen is best for SMALL screens like you find on phones or tablets…. or WAY at the other end of the spectrum, on HUGE tabletop surface screens…

Opinion: I think 14-24″ screens are best served with a mouse, trackball, touchpad (least), or light pen…. (the light pen is not a great solution for accuracy, but for PoS it is both fast and good.)

Tessa

Sorry, I didn’t mean that touch interfaces would replace the mouse — they won’t. Especially with most Windows desktop apps — touch is terrible for that.

But laptops with touchscreens and convertibles simply give you an option, and with the Windows 8 Metro start screen and apps, there’s something to actually use it for. There aren’t a ton of apps right now, but I expect there will be before too long.

And there are some apps — some music composition apps, some games, probably some other things — already written for the desktop where being able to use touch is a net improvement.

For some kind of consumer uses, it wouldn’t surprise me to see people react pretty well to having the option to use touch as well as a conventional pointing device.

http://www.facebook.com/LarryBlomstedt Larry Blomstedt

Using Windows 8 to sell touch screen based computers!? Well now if that’s not the tail wagging the dog I don’t know what is. MS fixed Vista with a few updates, but I don’t know how they’re gonna fix 8 unless a new update includes an option to re-enable the start menu and shut off the tile junk. Who needs their pc to look like their facebook page anyway?

Tessa

Your Facebook page looks pretty different from mine if it looks like the Win 8 start screen.

Finding a program in the start menu has been utterly broken for years. Why anyone would want to go back to drilling down into all those layers of menus to be able to launch things is beyond me.

Pinning things to the taskbar still works, right? And so does Win-R? If you need anything beyond those, the start screen is easier to navigate than All Programs ever was.

Really…I showed it to my mom the other day and she thought it was just plain easier to do the day to day tasks she deals with (she is retired)…she needs a computer for reading email, opening pictures, watching movies, etc…the start menu on win8 is fantastic for that

VirtualMark

I don’t understand how ditching Aero is supposed to increase performance? When Aero came out we were told that the GPU accelerated it and increased performance.

Secondly, while performance improvements are welcome i’m not too bothered about boot times and interface speed. My W7 computers work quickly and often get left on for days at a time, so boot time isn’t important. What is important is application performance, i’d be interested to see if there is any improvement here.

Also it seems like the interface performance is offset by the increased clunkiness of the Metro interface, as i still like to be ‘old fashioned’ and use a mouse or touchpad.

Good to see they have fixed explorer, although it shouldn’t take a version update to add an up arrow.

asdf qwerty

aero sucks battery life

mori bund

See that’s another example why it’s stupid to build the same system for desktop and mobile devices. As a desktop user I don’t care about battery life, but I would like Aero back.

Ask Intel… Aero is only a small portion of the window and can be run by the GPU relatively cheaply…

James

After using MS since MSDOS5, I went Linux as well in 2008 due to Palladium TPM scandal and DRM inside Vista.

You learn a *lot* about dirty MS tactics when you do that and only if you do that. Stuff like CP/M, Gary Kildall (and his death), ms-only directx, purporsely broken BIOS tables in motherboards, companies unwilling to cooperate unless its MS, unwilling to provide drivers or even release specs, dirty selling tricks, MS-only filestandards and programming languages, and recently – MS tax and patent trolling of Android and exFAT. Uh, and they explicity require drivers to be closed source in final form order to be accepted to WHQL.

I was also happy to see the rise of Android (ie Linux) and how very slowly, yet steadily Linux gets more and more support, programmers start prefering opensource and/or crossplatform APIs and software, so users are not bound to the operating system and can choose it freely. I never was in need to pay for antivirus since Linux move, the system is totally secure and I donate the money DIRECTLY to programmers instead of paying “95% publisher tax”. Also, no DRM.

That said, whilst Linux has Wayland display server incoming (yay!) and had “Software Stores” for AGES; Windows in new version inevitally forces even more bullcrap onto its users – stuff like Metro 8 and forcing only .NET language on Windows RT with main goal to shift anyone from WinAPI towards “secure” ms-only .NET (ie binding to the platform), locking UEFI on ARM and allowing UEFI “secure boot”, yet creating windows-only CPUs for x86 (Intel and AMD already announced them) so no one can finally replace Windows.

Personally, I wish windows to die. They failed the mission when they saw Linux coming and instead of understanding the movement behind it, started to block, damage and FUD its developers. Right now they try to “poison” Linux with MONO, but no one cares about it, since nothing depends on it… the beauty of opensource. If Microsoft would be a visionary, they would long ago have replaced its whole development model to that what “Kickstarter” today is – by allowing users to build it and removing any barriers to other operating systems, allowing others to have it as well. That would lead to users having really OPEN choice and using what they find innovating; instead of todays more and lockdowns and as closed-source as possible OS you really NOT trusting.

So, if you use windows and believe in everything written up by bribed media (more secure, only choice, innovation and etc bullcrap) ,.. its your own .. choice.

Even after years using Linux exclusive, its still interesting to look at what they pile together in an endless loop for making your pay, instead of actually allowing people to vote with money on what should be built for them and make them really part of the action…

The future is open.

asdf qwerty

android is horrible unless you buy a nexus series products there are way more security exploits in android as compared any other mobile OS.

OEM’s wont provide patches because they want users to buy new devices just for new software even if the current device is capable of running the new version leaving millions of users vulnerable .

the whole updation mechanism is disgusting.

http://twitter.com/BMischenko Benaiah Mischenko

This post would be much more persuasive if it wasn’t mostly wrong. I’ll just correct the blatant falsehoods I know off the top of my head – I’m sure a bit of research would unveil plenty more.

“MS-only filestandards and programming languages”
There’s no such thing as an “MS-only” language. Sure, there may be some that only work on Windows, but there are plenty of languages that only work on *nix systems (Ruby comes to mind – while it technically “works” on Windows, don’t try doing anything serious or [dear God, the pain] trying to run Rails unless you’re a Mac or Linux programmer). People who create programming languages have no obligation to make their language work on all platforms – we would have far fewer languages, particularly lower-level ones, if that were true.

“I was also happy to see the rise of Android (ie Linux) and how very slowly, yet steadily Linux gets more and more support, programmers start prefering opensource and/or crossplatform APIs and software, so users are not bound to the operating system and can choose it freely.”
I’m sorry, but Windows and Android are not equivalent, and Android, while it is based on Linux, has little in common with a Linux desktop distribution that would actually compare with Windows.

“I never was in need to pay for antivirus since Linux move, the system is totally secure”
Yes, I admit, Linux is more secure by default. But it’s ridiculous to blame Microsoft for having viruses when Linux doesn’t – it’s simply a result of Windows’ vast market share in comparison. It’s a valid reason for switching to Linux, but not for bashing Microsoft.

“I donate the money DIRECTLY to programmers instead of paying ‘95% publisher tax'” This is no different on Windows. The Windows Store does take a 30% cut of sales, but only if you use their payment system – roll your own, and you can still distribute through the Windows Store without the cut. You seem to like centralized software stores (“That said, whilst Linux has … had “Software Stores” for AGES”), so why is the Windows Store so much worse? Right, because bashing a company doesn’t actually require being, y’know, right. As for desktop apps, this is the same on Windows. Stop trolling.

“Windows in new version inevitally forces even more bullcrap onto its users – stuff like Metro 8″ Metro 8? Have you even read *anything* about Win8 or are you just spouting buzzwords you’ve heard in passing?

“and forcing only .NET language on Windows RT” This is just wrong. No explanation really necessary – they’ve been pointing out the Javascript integration since before the Developer Preview. Also, .NET is a runtime, not a language.
Everything runs in a runtime of some sort – WinRT just runs on the .NET runtime (for the most part). Any language that can run on .NET can run WinRT (Python, Ruby, and most of the other popular scripting languages all have .NET runtimes, for example).

” with main goal to shift anyone from WinAPI towards “secure” ms-only .NET (ie binding to the platform)” Unless you’re writing a web application, at least part of your application *has to be* bound to the platform. You’re somehow angry that Microsoft built and is supporting its own? What do you even mean by MS-only? Anybody can write a language that runs on .NET if they have the time and expertise, and many already have.

“Right now they try to “poison” Linux with MONO, but no one cares about it, since nothing depends on it… the beauty of opensource.”
Except Mono and Microsoft are not and never have been officially supported. Many people do care about it – it’s a very high-profile, well-maintained *open-source* project. All Mono does is allow you to use .NET languages such as C# and VB.NET with a cross-platform runtime and library. You whine that .NET is MS-only and then whine (incorrectly) that they’re supporting other platforms.

“If Microsoft would be a visionary, they would long ago have replaced its whole development model to that what “Kickstarter” today is – by allowing users to build it and removing any barriers to other operating systems, allowing others to have it as well.”
What the hell? Kickstarter? Seriously? You can use Kickstarter for a Windows project if you so desire – Microsoft does not because it is a company that already has money and doesn’t need to raise it from their customers before the fact. Also, Kickstarter has its own, very significant problems, which you seem to have ignored. You’re borderline incoherent at this point. Actually, cross out “borderline”.

“That would lead to users having really OPEN choice and using what they find innovating; instead of todays more and lockdowns and as closed-source as possible OS you really NOT trusting.”
I support open source unabashedly. However, I also don’t demand that Microsoft release its source which it has spent billions of dollars and decades of time building. People have to eat, and companies have to take care of the red ink – something the immature attitude so often associated with open-source advocates (not all of them by any stretch of the imagination, but most of the fanboys who don’t really know what they’re talking about – a group the OP seems to fit in) completely ignores.

“So, if you use windows and believe in everything written up by bribed media (more secure, only choice, innovation and etc bullcrap) ,.. its your own .. choice.”
If Microsoft was bribing the media, you’d think their press wouldn’t be so critical. A positive article on Microsoft is pretty rare, because MS is the designated bashing target for both commenters like you and most tech publications, rarely for good reason.

“Even after years using Linux exclusive, its still interesting to look at what they pile together in an endless loop for making your pay, instead of actually allowing people to vote with money on what should be built for them and make them really part of the action…”
Works the same way on Windows. Just because I pay them for the OS doesn’t mean I pay them for other people’s software. I am voting with my money every time I buy something (that’s true in any market – it’s basic economics).

In the future, try to actually know just a little bit about what you’re raging about before you post incoherent, inaccurate nonsense like this.

Through all this, though, you have shown one restraint I greatly appreciate, one that makes me think there is hope that you may yet be able to carry on a reasonable conversation at some point in the future. You never used “M$”.

http://twitter.com/vinitcool76 vinit kumar

So you are in payroll with MS or what? Do you blindly agree with everything they do?

Marcus Sullivan

Get a life..TLDR

KillBoxx

you’re an idiot. enough said…

Joel Perez

Average users, don’t understand half of your Jargon loaded rant. You wanna rail about platform specific software? Look at Apple. Some versions of Apple OS are not even backward compatible with itself….unless you install third party software.
Average users can’t use ANY version of linux, not even Ubuntu. I have dual boot Vista and Ubuntu on one machine, XP and Ubuntu on another, Im thinking about 7, 8 and Ubuntu on my laptop but im running out of HD space fast. My kids hate Ubuntu, even thought it’s faster But they hate it because they can’t run half the stuff WIndows can…like their games (permision to whine about wine granted). It has been relegated to severe WIN-OS damage restoration duty.
A lot of people badmouth windows because it can get a virus. That’s not MS’s fault. Viruses are not naturally occurring like with humans. They are written by criminals and uploaded by the users. That’s like blaming Ford, because someone stole your car, after you gave them the key.

advancethink

Very great writeup/article but for this:
“The fact that Microsoft isn’t making a version of Windows 8 available for non-touchscreen devices is a bitter pill to swallow” – I have Windows 8 running on my non-touchscreen desktop, so that statement is wrong or inarticulately put if a different point is meant…

VirtualMark

Clearly you have missed the point.

CharlesKGim

Clearly you have also.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian Anthony

Yep, sorry, that was just ambiguous wording by me. I have updated the story.
I meant that MS hasn’t made a version available _just_ for non-touchscreen devices (i.e. without Metro).

Jeff Jones

I think if Microsoft would add an easily accessible setting for “mouse and keyboard only” which caused any Metro app to launch in a resizable window on the desktop, it would cause 99% of the complaints to go away. It would also cut out some of the need for dual (Metro and Desktop) versions on some applications.

Ali Mirjamali

The only way Microsoft could push this OS at this time would be through OEM sales. No one would upgrade. If your hardware is not touch enabled, why should you? None of these features are really new, nor the improvements are significant. Microsoft should have included most of improvements through Win7 updates; or included real useful features such a fully functional Desktop equivalent of Siri.

Joel Perez

I bought it on day one of release….

http://blog.mirjamali.com/ Ali Mirjamali

Hi Joel. Happy new year. I have to admit that I was exaggerating a little last year. Right now, I would recommend Windows 8 over Windows 7. Nevertheless, the current global adaptation of Windows 8 stands at 10% whereas Windows 7 stands at 49% (according to NetApps). So my assumptions were almost correct. It appears that only those who purchase new hardware are getting Windows 8 automatically. Anyway, I switched to Linux at home. Using Windows only at work.

asdf qwerty

I think the main issue with windows 8 is the heterogeneous interface ,even if i am in windows desktop mode the modern interface contents are still present which is annoying ,messy,odd ,confusing and overall makes it difficult like network settings,charms,windows search ,open with a new extension file to look up in the app store etc.

I find overall windows 8 user experience unpleasant and difficult on a desktop or a non touch laptop , which is not good at all as compared to windows 7 which is easy.

But for future versions it’s a good step but needs a lot of improvements(separate interfaces ,easy to use etc ).

MS is ignoring their desktop market and forgetting that touch devices can never replace desktops ,everyone has their own place and significance .

And for a corporate user nobody wants this kind of kiddish immature OS which has no decency ,looks like it’s only made for little kids who play games or check mail on their computer who don’t do any real work on their pc.

Windows 8 is a disaster (at least for “billions” of non touch computers) but window RT is cool.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000158361996 Moz Gren

I’m no expert but have used Ubuntu since its inception. I wasn’t happy with the latest UI (Unity) and scrubbed it for the traditional Gnome. No problem. Will I have that choice if I install Windows 8?

mori bund

Nowadays Windows is doing it the Apple-way which means: the user has to choose what Steve wants him to choose.

Tessa

From what I understand, there are third party utilities that roll things back for the Metro-averse.

mori bund

Yeah great, now I have to install third party utilities, tinker with the OS and probably pay for a functionality that was a matter of course until now.

I expect from my system that it adjusts to me and my requirement and not that I have to adjust to the system and its developer’s personal taste.

Tessa

I don’t mean to say that this state of affairs is wonderful. But if you like some of the features in Win 8 enough to upgrade, you at least have some options for fixing the parts you don’t like. Even if the options aren’t built in like they should have been.

I expect, as with Vista, there will be plenty of people who wait for the next version of Windows to upgrade, simply because of the lack of some kind of “classic mode.”

luis3007

Yeah, and did classic mode returned with Windows 7….don’t think so and it will be the same with Windows 9!!

Tessa

All I’m saying is that if enough people don’t like Windows 8 solely because of the start menu changes — and Microsoft loses a bunch of sales because of it — then I expect that an option to return to what those users are more comfortable with is likely to appear.

Business 101, really: increasing sales by giving customers what they want.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EKNZKJ5LBTYYEUH4NCSPTGFGGE Eric

Unity is not so bad these days.. I use it now in work situations, and see no problems.

Why did people have to whine so much at a beta product before it had time to mature and never tried it again, yet still bash it?

There’s still room for improvement, but name 2 UI’s that are not candidates for improvements… The UI will always be an evolutionary piece of the OS puzzle.

I am hoping a driver for OS level Emotiv headset hits Linux soon… it would be nice to ditch the mouse and other pointing devices entirely.

http://www.twitter.com/JeremyCMorgan Jeremy Morgan

I’ve been using Windows 8 for a while, and it’s not bad. You can switch back to the desktop interface, and it’s ok once you get used to it. Killing the start menu was not a UI improvement in my opinion. For me personally there is no UI/UX improvement over Windows 7

For media consumption I think the metro interface is pretty cool, even on a desktop/laptop machine.It’s just kinda cool how websites and videos go full screen, and websites seem so much clearer and easy to read. I don’t spend a lot of time with the metro interface.

It does boot up faster for sure, and seems to run pretty snappy. Overall I’m happy with it though its still clunky in the UI department

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EKNZKJ5LBTYYEUH4NCSPTGFGGE Eric

Who cares if the browser goes fullscreen… that has NOTHING to do with Win8.
Most browsers go full screen when you tap the F11 key, and revert when you tap it again…

Most media players go full screen on the key combination: +

nothing new here folks, move along…

Aero? Which part of Aero are we referring to? The transparent widows? Waste of power, and easily disabled in Vista/7.

There’s no Win8 in my future, not on my desktop machines anyway… (maybe a phone or tablet if other incentives push me that way)

Sebastian: Nice article, even if I don’t agree with the end assessment that home users would be wise to adopt it for the cheap upgrade. (I don’t see it as an upgrade at all)

Like others here, I don’t even turn off whichever laptop I am currently using (Win7 or XP Pro) except in very rare circumstances.

My oldest XP laptop is almost 6 years old (Nov 15th) and still is very reliable, most likely due to low thermal shock of leaving it running most of the time.

Power drawn, according to a Kill-A-Watt device, is only 15 Watts idle, and just under double that abusing the GPU in a 3D FPS.

My newer laptop draws more, but also handles GPU acceleration of video encoding and other tasks that used to require a full desktop computer to run reasonably.

If I run my desktop machine, which is very rare these days, it’s only because I need massive storage access internally… (larger video editing projects)

I probably mentioned being a broadcast engineer for a television station before, but for those who missed it, that’s what I do for a living.

Actually I do production and engineering here, but that’s because I enjoy the editing of commercials more than because I want two positions here. (sort of like a paid hobby)

If Win8 does not increase productivity of my applications, I have no use for it.

Boot times are meaningless… I can go get a cup of coffee while waiting, it’s not an eternity these days. (Proper planning of your day removes any perceived loss of productivity staying with Windows 7)

So, what MEANINGFUL benefits are there, other than because M$ will eventually kill off Windows 7 support?

How about backwards compatibility with XP Era software that has no modern equivalent replacement? I would expect it to be worse than going from XP to (Vista or 7) Vista…

I was told some software is not “popular” enough for Microsoft to fix compatibility issues back when migrating to Windows Vista, and later 7… (Think pedigree software, almost any software for scanners and other older devices, etc)

I still keep my XP laptop just to run software that has not been patched, and has no modern replacement… I’d love to ditch it to save desk space, but I can’t.

Microsoft tried to force me to upgrade, by forcibly installing their UAA driver on my old XP laptop… oops, I guess they don’t care that that disables my possible use of the MODEM that hangs off the audio bus.

I had updates disabled in BOTH security center and under automatic updates settings… This has happened to me 2X in the last year. I finally blacklisted windows update in the hosts file. (now I have to use a 3rd party application to get updates, which I can live with)

I suppose one day I will be forced to use XP offline, just to keep it virus and malware clean… lucky all apps I keep the system for do not require a network connection.

Maybe as an ET Author, Sebastian does not run the same kinds of software to notice how bad it will hurt users when they make the switch to each new OS.

I realize not every piece of software will be tested by Microsoft or reviewers, and that’s to be expected… but to claim most end users would benefit from a $40 (upgrade?) cost up front, followed by finding many apps no longer work???

What is the real cost to upgrade? how many apps will have to be bought to replace what no longer works?

So, maybe you already read about the printers confirmed not to be supported from DELL and HP? (and others)

Again, what is the TRUE cost to upgrade, I’d wager it’s just $40 for a very small few who could just as easily be happy with an android tablet for everything they do with their computers… for the rest it is assuredly more.

Anyone who has not noticed we are still in a recession, note that not everyone is going out and buying a new computer, and not because they WANT tablets either… that’s all they can AFFORD at the moment.

True, some cities are hit harder than others, and some families have more discretionary cash to throw around, but not nearly so many as you’d think.

(perspective based on working in an advertising business selling ads, or currently TRYING to sell ads in a weak market for television)

I guess I will state my hope, and reasonable conclusion here… I believe desktop computer sales WILL return after enough people own tablets and get tired of squinting at their tiny screens, having batteries die, and loss/theft… and of course, after this coming election if the right candidate is elected.

(It may take another year or three, but PC sales will resume, and tablets will lose market share)

Luke Formosa

Have you considered running Windows XP in a virtual machine on your Windows 7/8 computers? VirtualBox is a free virtualising app, and though I only use this setup for running old standalone games and software that don’t work on Win7, I’m sure there’s a way for you to get your printers to work with the virtualised WinXP using virtualbox’s “USB passthrough” feature.

Ron Hyatt

Have you considered watching your TV thru binoculars pointed at a mirror?

rons a butthole

actually his suggestion was viable…dont be a douche

Pacer2782

That what they said about the TV Vs Radio

http://www.facebook.com/gordon.perkins Gordon Perkins

I agree I have upgraded as well on my laptop with no touch screen

BitterAlmond

Sebastian, you’re missing the biggest problem with Windows 8: it’s a closed platform. This means that, just like how your iPhone can only run Apple-approved apps, your desktop computer can only install commercial software at the whims of Microsoft. They’ve already disallowed all third-party distribution software as well, which means no more Steam, Origin, or any other gaming hubs. It also creates a considerable barrier to even installing simple free software like VLC.

The biggest problem however is how this limits independent development. So much good has come from Windows being an open platform (it was one of the biggest reasons it became popular in the first place), and to take that away is a universal low-blow to all developers.

I certainly will not be buying Windows 8 anytime soon unless I can play my games how I want and release software how I want.

luis3007

That is a lie, you CAN use any software you want and develope in any way you like as the desktop model is still the same as Windows 7 and has no restrictions. You don’t like the “closed” Windows Store…..use the desktop.

If you want MS to promote your apps, simplify the publishing process and help you monetize your software, then you accept MS rules in THEIR Store, it’s not like they are making you use it.

Jack

I’m sure it won’t be long before a 3rd party program, crack, work-around is released that will allow a desktop installer to install metro apps bypassing the MS store.

BitterAlmond

Every time I bring this up, somebody calls me a liar, and I have to send them to this page. Microsoft’s rules prevent anyone from making unapproved Metro apps. Metro is the new platform, and desktop is being phased out. Steam will never make it to Metro.

If desktop is phased out, it will be years from now, when the vast majority of users has converted to RT. Besides, what’s the problem with that? It creates a more secure ecosystem. I don’t see any Iphone/android users complaining that they can only get their apps from the store. You will aslo be able to kiss the AV goodbye. I’de call that a idea late in arriving.

Joel Perez

Completely incorrect. I have had 2 Win8 machines since launch. They can install and run most legacy application. Granted some – like utilities, antiviruses ,or things that are heavily attached to the OS – are incompatible. That is the result of new tech. But for the rest compatibility mode solve that problem.
WIN8 RT, however, runs only RT software. So what you’d need is Windows 8

luis3007

First, let me admit that I’ve been using the RTM since 2 months ago, mainly because it’s free for me (thanks Dreamspark Premium!!!)

Now, that aside Windows 8 IS the most stable and fastest version of Windows ever released.

The advantages to desktop and laptop users (which I am in both cases) are real and tangible in a way not seen since I changed from Windows 98 to XP SP2.

Of course, Metro is in its beginnings, just like the transition from DOS to 95 or 32 to 64 bit software. It is a work in progress and both the apps and the store are in their infancy. Will they get better? Of course they will. MS will keep pouring billions on it until they catch up and surpass the legacy apps level, just like they did with the Xbox, like they are doing with the Windows Phone, and like they will do with Windows RT.

Do I like it? Some parts I do, others are still a work in progress. But like or not, they are the future of MS. Those who think Windows 9 will bring the start button and push Metro away are deluding themselves. Now I hear the cries of “Go Linux” or “Buy a Mac”. Sorry for me and over a billion other users this is not a choice due to price in Apple’s case or compatibility and loss of invested programs in Linux’s case.

Jack

I waited till 2011 to make the move from XP to Win7 skipping Vista altogether. Before that I held on tp win98se till late 2003 skipping ME and 2000. I likely will skip Win8 and not even consider upgrading for another 5 years or more.

http://www.facebook.com/LarryBlomstedt Larry Blomstedt

I like Windows, but Microsoft dropped the ball on this one in my opinion.

The stability and speed of Windows 8 doesn’t matter when you’re wasting your time trying to re-learn how to operate your computer. If people that have been using Windows for years don’t like the sudden aggravating total change in how they have to navigate their SAME computer then I’d say they have a valid complaint against upgrading to Win8. Older folkes in particular that are just getting used to using a computer are totally confused by Win8. Why? It’s just wasn’t necessary to totally change the UI of windows. Why not give us all the streamlining and upgrades of windows 8 and forget idiotic tiles.

Luis3007, You seem to be making plenty of lofty predictions here about the future. Don’t call everyone deluded that doesn’t accept your tablet interface for PCs vision of the future. Maybe if you did have to buy Win8 you might have had to consider whether or not it was really worth it. BTW, What the consumers want (ie demand) is the future of MS not the other way around. For that matter I reject that “desktop PCs are on their way out” like I’ve been hearing from the stupid sales people at BestBuy. This kind of stuff is nothing but Kool-aide being dumped on people’s heads with the hope that enough people will drink it and go along with it.

Hey here’s a thought: Don’t be such a fanboy for Microsoft, they might have had their time. The next big thing to revolutionize computers or our way of life like windows has probably will not come from Microsoft. Surely Microsoft has had their time.

http://www.facebook.com/ian.skinner.9 Ian Skinner

it’s at times like this I miss Irix…

http://www.facebook.com/sasha.reydman Sasha Alexander Reydman

Ultimately, though, one question remains: Does Windows 8 bring enough to the table to justify the $40 upgrade? For end-users, the unequivocal answer is yes.

That’s so sweet…*** sales person,you really think that most users who read you “articles” are dam, don’t you?

Microsoft,return START menu to people, let them decide what to use and what not.

Joel Hruska

Start Menu is NOT the problem.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CDQXGLDTL2M7E72W3UDYFABANY bob k

Will 2014 be the year of GNU/Linux?

Guest

Nope.

Giorgos

The infamous year always was and still is too narrow a time frame. Taking a few steps back and looking at a decade, however, things are more interesting.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1223563048 Angel Ham

Windows 8 deserves the the combined hatred of a thousand suns. No effing markers as to where the hell to pinch or click the mouse pointer. It felt like I was playing a pixel-hunting, point and click game from the early 1990s just by trying to make it work.

What’s worse (to me anyway) is they took away the “show on desktop” option from the computer and now I have to click on the folder tab at the bottom, then move the mouse pointer to the upper left corner and click on it.

The Ribbon interface? ALL MY HATE. It’s like that traumatizing night where I spend two hours figuring out how to perform multiple column formatting in MS Word 2007.

Having said all that? It boots quick, everything feels silky smooth, the OS reacts superfast, the pause when you’re copying files option they included is a godsend, it can use Windows 7 drivers and multiple screens feel like a natural thing for it.

But the best part? ZERO Apple fans yapping that MS stole from Apple or that Windows 8 is a bloated turtle hog.

CharlesKGim

They are not yapping, they are laughing because they know its the UI from hell designed by satan.

Joel Detrow

I’ve been using Windows 8 Pro for a couple of days, and so far my biggest issue with it is Flash Player. It’s always crashing, killing sound, making Firefox stutter/be unresponsive for 30 seconds, it’s ridiculous.

luis3007

That’s either Flash of Firefox fault for not being optmized for Windows 8, I had the same problem, before I threw my hands and went Chrome, no problems there

Joel Detrow

Chrome certainly does work better, I’ve had no problems with it, I just prefer Firefox. It’s not as bad after removing some of the other plugins (restricting it to only Flash, Java, and Silverlight), but it’s still less than perfect.

I’ve been using it for a while multimon on a laptop and Enterprises can actually turn off the Browsers the way Search and apps work… I liek being abe to switch over to Metro for instant updates…

But SUSPEND IS A PAIN WITHOUT A SHORTCUT KEY… That’s for my 3mon deskktop. I can click start and sleep, but Win8 makes me dig through the settings… Oh yeah and I hate that EVERY point along the edge doesn’t popout. Finding a corner and dragging down is screwed with a mouse…

I guess it will come down to KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS… laptops have sleep buttons but desktop keyboards usually DON’T…

Marrach

So much ado over nuttink’
Boot time, smoot time. Who actually sits there and bites their fingernails waiting for the desktop to appear? I mean REALLY? And counting the seconds, too? Jeez!
If you DO…and you’re not a Software Engineer…then you need to get a Life.

M$ will make sure that Win8 is on every new Dell and Laptop and people who can’t afford Apple will just use and not give a cr@p about any so-called ‘improvements’. Though, I predict there will an outcry for the majority of Non-Techs screaming for the “START MENU’ because that’s what everyone knows. And M$ will cave just like it did with much beloved (snort) Vista.

On Enterprise/Corporate Desktops, the ballyhooed Metro interface will be DISABLED to default back to the plain old DESKTOP. WHY? Corporations like Conformity. And Corporate Drones want to hide their Porn and Facebook addictions. And in the end No-One will care.

Aero? Aside from Geeks– No-one even REMEMBERS that Win7 or Vista can do AERO. And they don’t CARE.

And Touch? Hmph…in the end, we’ll be snarling at the annoying drudgery of CLEANING grease smears before we can use the d@mned thing. Between the Kitchen, the Sandwich and the Bathroom, we’ll be so twinked off thinking we’re getting COOTIES from the screen that the Keyboards will make a roaring comeback before you can say: “WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE YOU TOUCH MY PC! Ewwww!”

Carlos Piad

How useful would be having dual touchscreen displays? Would there be any real advantage or it would be only gimmick?
On a side note i wanted W8 to support kinect for a HTPC, moving around metro with kinect would be cool.

http://www.facebook.com/ArtNull Arthur Null

somebodys getting paid by microsoft for a fluff article

Neon Frank

Makes a nice change from all the gushy Apple hyperbole we usually get

http://www.mrseb.co.uk/ Sebastian Anthony

*looks at you*

http://guideme.blogspot.com/ Mike Frett

I upgraded already, it’s called Linux. And there are no Chinese or Government backdoors in my OS.

Neon Frank

haha, ya right

Paul Humphreys

All this talk about the missing start button has me baffled The entire metro interface IS the start button. Actually, it’s better. Your start button “icons” now have contextual information and possibly even live updates. I’m sure there are a lot of windows users out there that actually have their most used apps pinned to the task bar. Which you can still do. Those that don’t pin to the task bar probably litter their desktop with app icons, which creates an “metroish” interface anyway.

And no, I am not a MS fan boy. While my main system is a Win8 laptop, I develop/use applications for both Apple(30%) and Linux(20%) as well. Even those UI’s had a learning curve when I first started using them. So folks, enough with the doomsday hyperbole.

http://www.facebook.com/dan.revas.5 Dan Revas

No. I like a clean, uncluttered desktop enviroment. All you see on my screen is the wallpaper. I even hide my toolbar. I don’t want to use anything that requires ugly tiles on my screen!
Also, you are tech savvy, the bulk of people that use computers really aren’t. You can’t compare yourself to the “average” user.

http://www.facebook.com/kyle.pantall Kyle Pantall

Clean freaks…… What can I say……
Windows 8 made me more creative, you must lack this aspect…

adam

on someones benchmark for boot up times there windows 8 booted slower by a couple of seconds then windows 7, but they had an enthusiasts PC, even if windows 8 booted faster it still doesn’t warrent me to upgrade because windows 7 is still the best OS at the moment and there is nothing wrong with it unlike XP, which still today has problems.

Nambi Sankaran

Interesting article. Talks about a lot of “improvements”. The “Task Manager” screen shot is very interesting. It has “chrome”, “vlc player”, “adobe photoshop”, “filezilla”. So, the user is actually running what is already running on his current pc. If windows 8 is great, there should more interesting processes running on the task manager. It looks more like what I see in windows xp / 7. Is it improvement of UI with $1.5b marketing effort?

Gil Bates

Looks like somebody has been drinking some Redmond Kool-Aid. I just cannot swallow it. I was a beta tester and I and all those I spoke with told them we hated the Metro GUI. Users who have seen it have hated it. Yet, we are going to have it because they say so. I also have not experienced any of the speed improvements of which you speak, perhaps because the test system was BIOS rather than UEFI, but once again requiring bigger faster hardware to perform the same tasks as we did on previous operating systems and then being told that each successive generation of the OS is “faster” is pretty lame. We kept getting told that Windows 7 was faster than Vista, which it was, but what was NOT being told was that XP on the same hardware is faster than both Vista and 7. Now, if I could just point out that with the updated OS we will now have UEFI, caching, and boot times and suspend states similar to the Mac OS and modern Linux & BSD systems. Whoopee! And, on top of those improvements, we get to use a (mandatory) ugly tablet-based GUI! Gee, um, er, thanks?!

Michael X.

I don’t think the desktop will ever die. I can’t imagine using the tablet to fking render graphics or to perform other cpu intensive duties. I am def not going to game on a tablet anyway. I would like to enjoy the splendour of Skyrim on a 27″ 1080p screen, not some retina 10.1″ bullshit screen. (though it IS very crisp)

Also, Obama 2012, and fuk u to all Tea Party members.

Walter Underwood

My Question is…. HOW THE FUCK IS METRO FASTER? WINdows 95 could run faster than this sh*t! So far i’ve seen 2 big failures from Microshit(microsoft)….
Windows Me and Windows Vista.
Windows 8 i believe… Will take 1st place in the shittiest OS ever.

Walter Underwood

Uh.Oh…. You can’t JAILBREAK This shit…

eojhet

I understand that there have been a ton of behind the scenes improvement. I understand that there has been a ton of work done under the hood. The problem is the interface. I work in IT and advise other companies in what type of software and hardware they should be using. I can’t recommend this product because I would not use it myself. I tried, I really tried to use the developers preview and it is the worst designed interface I have seen. I’d rather be using a linux machine than resort to the mickey mouse stuff. The most frustrating part is that I and the other IT and general nerd crowd have been completely ignored. Microsoft always makes mistakes, for the scope of their work it is inevitable. For a business OS, however, there is no parallel to Windows. I need my start menu and I need to be able to disable ‘Modern UI’. That is it. No convincing me of any other way to do this. I just really hope that our opinions can be heard by this release making very little money. The problem is that it will probably make plenty of money and sell plenty of computers and so we may never be heard on this one. Maybe in the end it can make linux stronger? Maybe more easy to use?

Insider

Good article, but you need to stop calling it Metro. Microsoft had to abandon that name months ago due to trademark infringement and doesn’t call it that anymore.

http://www.facebook.com/mario.treeman Mario Treeman

You say it enchances the desktop experience, but none of the examples given have anything to do with the INTERFACE! Who cares how fast it starts, or how much power it will save you? I don’t want a tablet interface on my desktop, plain and simple. Don’t treat my 1900×1200 monitor like it was in the palm of my hand and hide valuable menu items. I don’t want to swipe anything… How much did microsoft pay you for the softcore review?

i could never use this for anything other than social networking and B.S.ing at home online. id get fired if I showed up with a touch screen at work. im sure microfail is aware that business will still stick to windows 7 or even vista as most business aren’t crazy about change for at least a good while. im all techy and stuff but I would never want anyone that works for me to run this os. I dislike apples all or nothing approach to apps and productivity . but this might push more peeps to apple. I also had to disable 3d video cards because windows 8 was having issues with it. so back to watching tv on a tv lol..

ElixirBlack

I’m not sold on it (although I bought a win8 copy anyway).

If the future of Windows is dumbed-down interfaces and power savings, I’m heading to Linux. Good thing Valve and Steam are already on their way there to meet me.

RedneckMatt

I am fighting the 7-8 move as long as I can. That said…

Has anyone considered how well this new interface would work on a big TV using a Kinect-style interface?

None of these are worth the immediate pain of “Metro” and the inevitable limitations of a MS walled garden, IMHO.

Maximillion82

Nice review, I haven’t had a chance to use Win8 much on a non-touch device. But on a touch device (especially) tablet I actually prefer Win8 over iOS and even Android (tablet only) for phones I still have my heart set on Google’s OS.

Boot times on my PC with UEFI bios and SSD are already fast enough with Win7, but other features make complete sense. I am kinda sad to see Aero gone since my hardware has no problems supporting Aero. I think that reviews should from the beginning mention for which device the review is meant. For laptops power consumption is a big issue, for a desktop it doesn’t matter what so ever (maybe $2 per year on your power bill?, this will of course be different for enterprises running many machines). For touch devices there is no question that Windows 8 is the system to use. But for a desktop PC it’s a very personal preference, multi monitor support and better task manager are probably the main features, maybe performance increases on older or weaker hardware. What about a top of the line high-end rig? Does a user even notice the performance improvements?

Beatwolf

What a retarded article. People should NOT upgrade to win8. It´s fucking annoying. So much stuff that just shouldn´t have gotten through testing.

Windows forgot about their desktops. lol. I guess that is why they made the touch screen ones. idk who wants a touch screen desktop, but I don’t that’s for sure. I am perfectly happy with Windows 7. The new interface seems hard to learn from what I saw and played with at the mall. The interface is going to be a pain on desktops and non-touch laptops. Touchscreens will love but non-touchscreens will hate.

dfjkbvdjkf

You say “Does Windows 8 bring enough to the table to justify the $40 upgrade? For end-users, the unequivocal answer is yes” – but, having read the article and understood all the little tweaks, different approaches, faster this-and-that I’m still left pondering the single fundamental question:

If I was to upgrade to W8, what would my PC be able to do that it can’t already do on W7?

I appreciate that some stuff is a bit faster, some stuff is a bit prettier and some stuff is a bit tighter. But it’s still only windows – it still only runs whatever applications I have, handles data, screens, networks and user I-O. If I go to the trouble of upgrading, I want to be able to do MORE with the upgraded PC than I could before. So far, the question of “what more?” remains unanswered.

http://about.me/kuteninja Emiliano Perez

I still think that people WILL indeed USE windows 8 if they can remove completely the stupid Metro tablet-like thingy. Just give them something that they can relate to, something similar to the old OS and they’ll use it, you can implant changes little by little, but you won’t succeed in changing the whole look and feel of the OS from 0 to 100 in one version.

K. Mackie

I don’t see any mention here of the fact that my intel USB3 would no longer work.
What Win8 offers that I want: nothing.
What Win8 takes away that is useful to me: USB3 and some software.

Giorgos

“This relies on third-party developers submitting their Desktop apps to the Store, though — and at the time of publishing, it would seem that not many have bothered. Popular apps such as Filezilla, Firefox, and VLC aren’t available from the Windows Store — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Well, “bothering” translates into an annual fee of 99$ for a company type account (only this one allows for non-Metro application listings). No problem for organisations like Mozilla, but money probably better spent elsewhere for smaller projects. But apart from that, I think that especially open-source/free (as in freedom) software developers should not support Apple-like store systems.

Giorgos

“This relies on third-party developers submitting their Desktop apps to the Store, though — and at the time of publishing, it would seem that not many have bothered. Popular apps such as Filezilla, Firefox, and VLC aren’t available from the Windows Store — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Well, “bothering” translates into an annual fee of 99$ for a company type account (only this one allows for non-Metro application listings). No problem for organisations like Mozilla, but money probably better spent elsewhere for smaller projects. But apart from that, I think that especially open-source/free (as in freedom) software developers should not support Apple-like store systems.

Ron Hyatt

MS once again has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Win8 is noticeably faster in desktop mode, prob due to aero being gutted. Too bad users have to do a linux and download crap and jump thru hoops to kill Metrosexual.

Alex

Windows 8 evokes (or evoked, before I came back to W7) a love and hate sort of a feeling in me. While using 8 (RTM x64) I did notice that it felt more responsive than 7, though I wouldn’t necessarily call it faster per se. I liked some interface changes, but I did not like the Start Screen, or the charms menu. Having to google how to shut down my computer was a first in my 15+ years of computer use. Seriously. I could not get used to those two changes. I also found it obnoxious that changes I made through the Start Screen did not carry over to settings in “desktop mode”. Some things MS definitely got right with 8, but some flaws are unforgivable in 2012.

http://www.facebook.com/midnightelfthe1st Anakin Mortensen

I Don’t know about this…… I Still Like Running Old Stuff (Software and Hardware!) And I Like to Repair Old “Junk Puters”…. I think If I have to Run an Emulator Just Run Programs That I Already use on a win 7 Then Why Should I Upgrade to 8….. I Can See It Now Having to To “Root” Your new windows 8 Machine just Like a Droid To Make it Worth a Damn And Backwards Compat….

By designing Windows 8 for tablets PC, Microsoft was forced to put a lot of effort into streamlining the entire Operating System for mobile devices. As a result, Windows 8 boots up faster, and the Operating System itself consumes less RAM and CPU cycles than Windows 7.

highnote606

A lot of rhetoric. Windows 8 is not harder to break than any other.

ron hyatt

once you add a start button and bypass metro, Win8 is faster than win7 on the same hardware. Glad I upgraded. But, Metro is an abortion.

rons a butthole

Or everybody can stop bitching about the start menu being gone and download:

Yes it will take some getting used to as with every Windows milestone. For an average home user (average meaning very little to no know how), this was a smart move. Everything for your everyday browsing is located on the start page as we all know that the average user uses their machine for internet browsing, youtube, facebook etc.

For the advanced user options are very similar to windows 7 only with an added start screen.

http://www.facebook.com/kyle.pantall Kyle Pantall

I think the windows 8 interface brings a new era of possibilities to users. I also believe that It contains a lot more customisation and security. I do not like the desktop which is the main idea of windows and I too think that whilst performance is good but I would like something pleasant to look at whilst I work. I love the metro but I think Microsoft have only focused on the start screen, security and nothing else. I would like Aero back but It wouldn’t suit, Windows 8 is good but Microsoft need to focus on what users are demanding and not what they want.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Derek-San/100000321778801 Derek San

I would switch to Windows 8 if I didn’t loathe the Metro UI (which has no place on the desktop) so much. Plus, Win8’s look is too much of an eyesore. I find hilarious that MS calls Aero “dated” and then replaces it with a visual style that looks like it belongs to a 90’s OS. Seriously. Lazy square, single color borders. Flat look. Monochrome buttons and icons that look like they were drawn in 30 seconds. I’ll take the “cheesy and dated” Aero over Win8’s hideous look any day of the week, thank you very much. And yes, I know that MS removed Aero to make Win8 faster and less resource heavy than Win7, but that doesn’t mean that it has to look to darn fugly. Windows XP didn’t have Aero and it looked much better.

http://www.facebook.com/randomkeypress Steve Steven

I upgraded my Win7 Acer laptop to Win8 and noticed the login screen comes up almost instantly but it continues to load the OS some time after logging in, it’s like they’ve just brought the login forward. The Metro interface worked well for me once I’d found my way around it, nice to get away from 3.1 mentallity at last. However, after a while I came across a few issues such as IE10 only loading when it felt like it, unresponsiveness and 4 crashes in 1 month where with Win7 I only had 1 crash in the whole year! I spent much time trying to sort out the IE10 problem without success. Interestingly I found my laptop battery life reduced from 7 hours to 4 hours, the opposite of what I was expecting from what I’d read from MS publicity department – go figure. I’ve now gone back to Win7 and upgraded my older slow Vista laptop which it seems to like. Basicially I don’t think the operating system matters, so long as it’s reliable it’s just a framework to hang applications on, when I’m using Photoshop etc in my contract work I sometimes forget whether I’m on a Mac or PC lol!

Bob

So basically, as usual, more new useless shit right? lol. Less is more, Keep it simple stupid and if it aint broke dont fix it are temrs that microsoft need to hear more often, the only thing I dream of? a manufacturer that isnt an asshole and who will provide drivers that are win 98 se compatible for a quad core with 8 gigs or ram, that ll be a machine that actually works, is fast ( blazing to be more accurate ) and which wont give me as much dumb attitude and will mind its own business a bit more. I miss the older stuff a lot, now that my new machine tunred out having drivers that only work with win7 , I regret that purchase because of that fact alone, 4 gigs of ram which are of no use to me, because I cant run a decent OS on this machine. Im stuck with a dictating bitch that wont even run older apps which really were the best apps and games ever made, new stuff is slow junk with useless heavy graphics which perform useless tasks and rarely perform the ones you need, which user hostile interface most of the times. P4 quad core with win 98 would boot in maybe 7 seconds really. With an ssd, I bet 3 secs. Without the cheats you mention. Cant even run old games like master of orion 2 on this piece of horse shit win7. Worst junkware ever made.

ron s

bunch of jubo, clutter,,where is that and this,..confusing..no thanks…..microsoft should have 2 operating systems….i don,t understand this company anymore,,,maybe google will come out with a new operating system for desktop users.

Archduke Leopold

I don’t care about fast startups, if Win 8 is not useable
I don’t care about Touch, if Win 8 is not useable
I don’t care about mere promise of greater security, if Win 8 is not useable.
Can you see the pattern here?

Bring all the basic functions back to the Desktop that you foolishly cut away, and
then, may be, we’ll talk. On the other hand, there is a chance that Google Chrome
would like to snap up, let’s say, 750 million worldwide users, and if they fix their Chrome
OS faster than MS does anything, and make it user friendly a la XP, then may
be MS doesn’t really need those pesky demanding extra 750 million users.

Archduke Leopold

I don’t care about fast startups, if Win 8 is not useable
I don’t care about Touch, if Win 8 is not useable
I don’t care about mere promise of greater security, if Win 8 is not useable.
Can you see the pattern here?

Bring all the basic functions back to the Desktop that you foolishly cut away, and
then, may be, we’ll talk. On the other hand, there is a chance that Google Chrome
would like to snap up, let’s say, 750 million worldwide users, and if they fix their Chrome
OS faster than MS does anything, and make it user friendly a la XP, then may
be MS doesn’t really need those pesky demanding extra 750 million users.

Archduke Leopold

Plus yucky green, yucky orange and yucky purple really clashes badly. Get a new color consultant. Hire those Cosmo people or Pantone, they’ll fix you up.

Archduke Leopold

Plus yucky green, yucky orange and yucky purple really clashes badly. Get a new color consultant. Hire those Cosmo people or Pantone, they’ll fix you up.

TheChairman

You know what is ‘extremely’ funny about this piece? Reading your statements in the 3rd and 4the paragraph, and seeing MS pull the rug out and make you look like a total fool.

To quote your ‘assurances’ about Win8 and the Desktop:

“…you would be forgiven for thinking that the Desktop (Explorer) side of things has simply been swept under the rug. You would be even be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft has abandoned the existing two billion users of the Windows Desktop”

Well, it’s now 2+ years later; MS is not forgiven, and is back-pedaling as fast as possible.

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